


A Reckoning Cannot Be Postponed

by HybridKylin



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Based on an AU, Chara and Asriel have a very close bond, Gen, Grieving, Implications of Abandonment, Implied violence because see previous tag, Some Very Messed Up Kids Okay, Someone's about to get dunked on, Storyshift, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 15:59:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6201706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HybridKylin/pseuds/HybridKylin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not forever. Not for long.</p><p>Or: Asriel sees the Surface for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Reckoning Cannot Be Postponed

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Storyshift AU](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/180112) by Voltrathelively. 



> This fic takes place in the King Asriel Neutral ending of the amazing Storyshift AU, which you should really check out, probably even before you read! As a gist; ten characters in five pairs are rotated through their canon roles while retaining their personalities, and the results are very. Very. Interesting.

Asriel stands up, and almost immediately falls over. His limbs are wrong, longer. The balance of weight on his head has changed, and everything seems smaller.  
  
He feels _something_ take hold and try to move his legs to prop him up while he flings out his arms to stay steady, but Chara is even more unused to a body like this and they both end up falling forward. His snout hits the stone tiles of the throne room. His eyes water.

_Whoops. Sorry, Rei._

He’s so happy to hear their voice. They could barely speak, by the end. Barely _breathe._  
  
_Don’t get mushy on me,_ Chara says, embarrassed, and he can tell they’re tactfully ignoring the second part of that thought, and he didn’t realize sharing souls would mean sharing _minds._  
  
But it’s not as if they’ve ever _really_ kept secrets from each other, he thinks, at the same time Chara thinks _I don’t mind sharing with you._

It takes a while, but they manage to get up, with some ‘you take that leg, I’ll take this leg’ coordination. It gets easier the longer they’re like this, until it takes almost no thought at all, like breathing. After a few shaky steps, he wobbles over to where Chara lies.

They look so _small._ He gathers them in his arms, and lifts them onto his lap. They’re so light.

 _You’re just stronger now, Rei,_ Chara says, and he can feel them not looking despite his eyes being seemingly unable to tear themselves from green and yellow. _Can’t you feel it?_ He can. Chara’s comforting presence hums throughout him like the heat of a star _you’ve never felt a star, silly_ something warm and powerful then. It makes him feel like he could do anything. _Determination_ , Chara says, apropos of nothing.  
  
“What should we do with it?” he says. He handles it gingerly, feels the last of its fading heat drain away. It’s not in good shape, after what Chara’s done to it. To _themselves._ His paws tighten on it, and Chara averts themselves further. He keeps expecting it to crumble to dust at the slightest pressure, but it doesn’t, stays disturbingly solid.

_Leave it. It’s useless now, anyway._

He can’t just leave it. It’s _Chara._ Even if it’s not.

 _It’s just my shell_ , Chara says, in a matter of fact way he can tell is meant to reassure but which manages to do the complete opposite. Chara is _dead,_ don’t they care? They can’t ever do things on their own, now. He can’t hug them anymore, or roleplay with them, not without looking silly, or have a snowball fight with them or…  
  
_Hey,_ Chara says, softly, and he can feel them turn his head away from the weight in his arms. _As long as I’m here with you, I’m happy._

Tears drip on the stone. He knows.

Chara feels thoughtful. _It will probably start to smell after a while though,_ they say, ever practical. _I wonder…_

He feels his limbs start to move of their own volition, and lets them. He trusts Chara. Chara stands up and carefully sets down their body, before bending and taking from their neck a glass pendant. It’s reverently placed around his neck. _There._ He thinks they might be done, but then they step back. Fire magic flares in his palms, hot and bright white.  
  
He has a fraction of a second to wonder what they’re doing before his arms swing and twin fireballs are flung down on Chara’s body. It takes to the flame like a torch. They step back, and he watches what’s left of them burn to ash and by the time that’s happened his knees are hurting from the stone.

He shakily reaches out and takes a handful of fine charcoal. It runs through his fingers. He stares at it.

 _Monster funerals are much cooler than human funerals,_ Chara says, _and you’re my favourite thing, Rei._ They take the other hand and dip it in the black dust, and smear it on his face, once, twice, before withdrawing. It takes a second for him to realize the markings they must have made. _Being stuck in a coffin for eternity doesn’t appeal._

He remembers what they found in the castle basement all too well.

“Let’s go, then,” he says, thickly, rubbing at his eyes with a back of a paw and very carefully avoiding the markings. Chara hasn’t left him, in the ways that matter. _That’s_ what matters. They send a hum of agreement throughout him, and he turns towards the Barrier.

* * *

  
Asriel had expectations for what the Surface would be like. The books and movies that fell down and were salvageable were enough to build up a decent picture, especially with Chara to fact correct and maybe occasionally jokingly mislead. _Experiencing_ it is another matter. Books can’t tell you what sunlight feels like.  
  
He can feel Chara content, as they watch waves of orange and yellow roll down towards the horizon. They often told him that they didn’t miss _anything_ about the Surface, anything at all, and anyway the Underground was much better, but he can tell from the nostalgia that trails up from them that they missed _this._

Chara gives him the mental impression of giving him a playful shove. They’ve been keeping their memories of the Surface locked tight however he asked to peek on the way out of the cave, telling him they didn’t want to spoil him, and he can see why. They meet his wonder with a kind of wistful amusement.

 _We should go before true sunset_ , they say eventually. _It will be harder to search for my mirror in the dark._

He frowns, unhappy. Yes. They’re here for a reason. He sighs, and gets up, and looks out over the cliff towards the dark shape on the horizon in which square lights are already starting to shine. Mom could fly… could he, now? He carefully lifts a paw off the gravel, and takes off. He can.  
  
This time it’s Chara’s turn to feel wonder, as the landscape passes by with a roar of wind and he laughs. And then they laugh, when he doesn’t quite stick the landing and ends up tangled in a tree, before helping him extricate himself.  
There’s a gasp from elsewhere, and he looks up from where he’s picking the last twig from his fur. It’s a human. Inside, he can feel Chara tense and coil, wound tight in a worrying way.

For a second he thinks… but no, it can’t be _the_ human. There’s a moment where he feels a corner of amusement before he realizes what he just thought. _Am I an honorary monster, then?_ They aren’t wearing blue and purple, and their hair is different. Chara points out other things to look for, still on guard but seemingly more relaxed, and some of them are really subtle compared to the differences in monsters, to Chara’s continued wry amusement.  
  
This has all passed in a fraction of a second. He barely has time to start to put his paws up in a hopefully disarming manner _Rei you’re exposing your claws!_ before the wide eyed human, a kid he thinks despite the lack of stripes, opens their mouth and _screams._

“No, it’s okay!” He says. “I won’t hurt you!” But they’re already running away. And Chara chases after. His long legs are no match for the human’s short ones, no matter how fast they run, and Chara catches up easily and pounces, roughly pinning the human to the ground and clamping a paw over their mouth.

“Don’t make a sound,” they say, and it’s the first time they’ve spoken with his mouth, low and sharp. Asriel doesn’t like it. “Chara, you’re scaring them!” He can see the small human has stopped struggling and is starting to cry, hiccupping.

He carefully eases his hold on the human so that it’s not so tight, although Chara, watching alert and hawklike, won’t let him let go entirely. “My name’s Asriel,” he says, as friendly as possible. “Howdy! What’s your name?” He slowly moves the paw over their mouth away despite Chara’s protests, so that they can answer.

“A- are y- y- y- you gonna kill me?” the human says, and his face falls. Six. “No,” he decides, even as Chara thinks, rather than says, a _we might have to_ and an image of the human fetching whatever the human equivalent of the Royal Guard is. “I just want to be friends. Is that okay?”  
  
The human stares at him, sniffles. “Okay,” they say quietly, eventually. Asriel feels relief, and tries to ignore Chara radiating suspicion like a hot stove. “Um… you’re hurting me.”

“Oh! Sorry,” he apologizes, removing his weight from the human. He forgot that he’s a lot bigger and taller now. The human doesn’t immediately run or make a move to attack, which seems to assuage Chara a bit.

“Nice to meet you, Areyougonnakillme,” Chara says, grinning, and Asriel can’t help but snort laughter into his paws despite sending an internal groan their way. The human just looks worried and confused and still very much on edge. _Oh, right,_ Chara appears to realize. _Fangs._ Asriel is just confused. Nearly everyone he knows has fangs. Humans find them scary? _Sometimes. Not me, personally._

“Hey,” he says, still keeping his voice as gentle as possible. He kneels down in front of them a little, like Mom and Dad did when they were being serious with him or Chara. It does seem to calm the human down. “We’re… I’m actually looking for someone, maybe you could help me?” _The chances of this human knowing_ that _human aren’t as high as you think, Rei._ “They’re your size, and they wear a blue and purple stripy shirt, and their face looks like this.” He does as passable an imitation as he can manage, which isn’t much considering his snout. The human tilts their head, thinking.

“Do you mean Frisk, mister?” Asriel can’t believe his luck, if Chara’s disbelief is any indication. Also, _mister?_ He’s not _old!_ Chara snickers, and he nods.  
  
“Yeah,” he says. “I… need to ask them something. Do you know where they are?”  
  
The human shrugs, and his face falls. And then they say: “I think they live in the park. They’re always here even after all the grownups are gone.”  
  
_That’s enough to work with,_ Chara says, and stands him up to leave. He can feel them start to gather magic, and panicking slightly, blocks it. Chara is thrown off and irritated. _We can’t let them warn them!_ He’s pretty sure that isn’t the answer!

“Can you keep a secret?” he says to the human, a little hurriedly and worriedly, because Chara is being sharp and spiky in the back of his mind and he can tell that under it is fear _for_ him. He wants to yell back that monsters aren’t as delicate as they think they are, that _he_ isn’t as delicate, and they shove memories of dust at him viciously. He doesn’t have any real counter for that, but he still refuses.  
  
In the middle of this internal sibling spat, the human nods. Distracted as he is, he almost doesn’t notice, but he does and sags with relief, recalling what he wanted to say as a distraction itself. “Can you not tell anyone I’m here? I want it to be a surprise.”  
  
“Does this mean you’ll be a secret friend?” the human asks, catching _him_ by surprise. “Sure,” Chara says before he can respond, bending down conspiratorially. “The secretest. You know what people do to the monsters in movies when they find out about them?”

The human nods, eyes wide. “That’s why,” Chara says, and then hands over control fully. Asriel is still unhappy with this. He’s seen enough human fiction to know what Chara is talking about. The human still looks at him with fear, but like Chara, it’s not fear for themselves anymore. It makes him feel uncomfortable. On an impulse he reaches out, and, minding his claws, ruffles their hair. They close their eyes and seem to like it. Is this a weakness for all humans?

If that other human had just been pet enough, would they have _Asriel. Don’t._ He knows it’s wishful thinking. He still can’t help wondering if if he’d done something different _Stop._ If… Mom would still be alive.

There’s pain and betrayal and hurt and anger, all at once. It’s hard to tell whose it is. He stands up abruptly and starts walking, leaving the human behind, their short little legs giving up after a while of concerned following. He once again wipes his eyes before the markings can be ruined and takes a shaky breath.

_That one can live. They probably wouldn’t be believed, anyway._

“Chara,” he says. “You’re scaring me.”

Chara is apologetic but unrepentant. _Humans are terrible creatures, Asriel. I never wanted you to find that out first hand._ A pause. _And I am not an exception._  
  
He thinks about the human they left behind in the park, calling after them. He thinks about Chara themselves, making chocolate chip cookies just to give. He thinks they might be wrong.

 _Hey,_ they say, softer, more subdued, less formal. _Rei. You don’t need to worry, okay? I’ll be bad_ for _you._

They say that like it should make him feel better.

 _It’s nearing nightfall,_ they continue. _If ‘Frisk’ lives in this park, they will be returning to a shelter. That means either a convenient tree or a playground._ He nods. It makes sense. He lets them navigate as the last lines of sunlight slip away. They seem to know the area well, although they occasionally have to back track when something they don’t remember being there or being absent throws off their mental map.

They only tokenly grouse when he looks at the stars rather than where they’re going _honestly, Rei, we’re going to trip over something at this rate_ , but it’s said fondly. It’s even better than the pictures, he thinks. _Of course it is_ , Chara says, and then seems to be distracted themselves. _Look, there’s Orion._  
  
Once he has that, he starts finding other constellations he recognizes from the star map. _Draco. Sagittarius._ He knows all the stories about them that Chara could half remember, and some he’s pretty sure they made up, already, but they tell them again anyway.  
  
_…we don’t have to get six_ , they say suddenly, in the middle of such a tale. _We can just return, after. Monsters are safer in the Underground._ There’s a shade of a thought, an echo behind it, one that Asriel has to strain to catch; _where they can be protected._  
  
“Chara, everyone’s counting on us.”  
  
_No, they’re not. We told no one we were doing this._ His mind fills with reasons he knows Chara sees, and they cut him off. _I would rather you alive and unhappy than dead and nothing._  
  
He remembers, then, that humans don’t Fall Down, remembers Chara’s confusion and then somber understanding at the concept. The way they think is different, and sharing space with Chara it’s becoming increasingly clear _how_ different.  
  
_Monsters will survive,_ Chara insists. _They have you. You’ll bring them hope, I know. You bring enough to me._  
  
It’s encouragement that feels like a millstone. “It’s not your decision to make, Chara,” he says quietly. “I’m the king, now. I need to do what’s best for my people.” They’re words he tries to say brave, firm, like a king should.  
  
There’s a silence from Chara. It’s dark, inscrutable. When they speak again, their tone is polite and clipped. _My apologies, your majesty. I, your loyal servant, will abide by whatever you decide, and lend my aid in your endeavours._  
  
He hates it. He can’t see it, but he knows if he could they’d be wearing that stupid fake smile they wore when they first met, when they addressed Mom and Dad with their full names, when they...

“Chara…” he says.

 _This is the place_ , they say, and nothing more.  
  
He remembers promising the human they’d meet again someday, under the stars. He didn’t think it would be like this. He steps softly. He can see very well even in the dark, and even in grayscale the ball of striped sweater curled in the tunnel of the playground is stark. It’s them.  
  
Chara pushes at him. _Go on_ , they say. _Ask._  
  
He tentatively reaches in, places a paw on their shoulder and the reaction is immediate; they bolt upright and crack their head _hard_ on the concrete ceiling. Chara cackles unsympathetically and unheard as they clutch it with a whine.

Asriel watches as they catch sight of him, confusion and then fear writ evident on their face, and they back away.  
Chara waves a paw, and flames block off the opposite exit, halting the human’s retreat, and then they settle down in him to watch, catlike. They’re filled with a dark curiosity, and it’s making Asriel’s fur prickle.  
  
He tries to smile at the human, _the_ human, anyway. It twists and warps in his nervousness, and their expression of dread behind determination. “Howdy, newcomer… ha ha, I guess I’m the newcomer now, huh?”

The human says nothing. Chara offers no advice. He squares his shoulders and takes a breath.  
“Listen… I have to ask you something. We came all this way to, so you have to answer.” The human merely blinks at him, slowly. “Why… did you do it…? Why…?” He too, blinks, much more rapidly, paws clenched.  
  
But the human doesn’t. They still say nothing. They crawl forward, and Chara readies themselves, but they only place their hands on one of his paws. _They’ve washed off the dust,_ Chara observes. _Like it’s that easy._  
  
“I thought I had to,” they say, so softly he almost doesn’t catch it, and his breath hitches. He waits and waits, but there’s nothing more from them. He swallows.

“That’s… that’s _it!?_ ” he says. “You…” He feels laughter that isn’t his bubble up in his throat, and he lets it, like he finally lets tears mar the markings on his face.

 _Are you satisfied, Rei?_ Chara says. _Is this what you wanted?_ The words sound harsh, but they’re said kindly, even if he can acutely feel Chara’s killing intent rising from within. _Rest. I’ll take it from here._ And he knows what Chara is planning, what they’re going to do but… he can’t bring himself to interfere, despite everything. He turns away.  
  
When his head snaps down, its mouth is pulled in a sharp toothed smile that hurts the corners of his face. The hand resting on his paws is grabbed at the wrist, roughly, and tugged.  
  
“Greetings, “Shifty”,” Chara says, eyes gleaming red. “Did you think you were above consequences?”


End file.
